Just like that, another year has passed and we are back in Colorado for our annual High Five The Hill ski camp. Like many camps, this one seems to progress and change year to year. We spend the week seeing first timers become mentors, ushering in new sit skiers, and showing them the ropes of life on the ski hill in an adaptive manner.
It was great to be able to run this camp with strict COVID protocol in place. These strict practices allowed us to be able to include more individuals in a safe and monitored enviroment. This years camp saw 13 different High Five Athletes come out and ride together.
Cassie Eckroth is a new High Fives Athlete who became injured in a surf accident in 2021. Cassie lives in Reno so High Fives has been fortunate enough to be able to get to know Cassie in the time since her injury. We quickly noticed that she was an incredibly strong and resilient person and got to see her athleticism shine through while she attended bike camps and played for our sled hockey team in Reno.
We asked Cassie if she would like to try out some adaptive skiing in Winterpark Colorado for our annual High Five the Hill ski camp. You could picture her smile through the phone as she politely replied “I would love to”
We set Cassie up on equipment and lessons through the NSCD and she took to skiing as we expected her to. Sit skiing is an incredibly tough sport and it is not uncommon to have Athletes struggle for many lessons before they get that moment where it clicks and they are able to properly ski again. This was not the case for Cassie. She went out for her morning lesson and was comfortably making turns down the slope by lunchtime.
To say it was special to see would be an understatement. Seeing Cassie making turns and loving life on the hill was incredible.
Cassie was the newest skier and was shown the ropes by all other Athletes attending the camp. Nick Fairall, Matt Brewer, Drew Stephens, and Lawrence Green all took the time to show Cassie some moves that they had learned through years of sit-skiing. The time at Winterpark was spent shredding up the slopes and hanging out with new friends and old. We were thrilled that we were able to run into and ski some laps with NCSD Racers and other High Five Athletes who are local to Winterpark.
We are already looking forward to next year!
We would like to thank all of our partners and anyone who has ever donated to High Fives without your support this camp and so many others like it would have never happened.
For a full photo recap CLICK HERE
